Unclaimed lottery prizes $2.4M last year

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This article was published 27/02/2016 (3833 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitobans have been putting some very expensive loads through the laundry lately.

Winning lottery tickets totalling approximately $2.4 million have gone unclaimed in the province during the Western Canada Lottery Corp.’s most recent fiscal year. Some became an unrecognizable crumpled-up ball in a pants pocket after going through the spin cycle, some were left to collect dust in a vehicle glove compartment while others were thrown in a drawer and forgotten about.

Many of them weren’t huge — the most common winning tickets that aren’t redeemed have prizes of $2, $5 and $10. About one per cent of all lottery prizes in Canada go unclaimed every year.

In Manitoba, a few big prizes are set to expire next month. An Extra ticket worth $100,000 will expire March 21, and a Lotto Max ticket worth over $100,000 will expire March 27.

Occasionally, you get a whopper. Like the case of the Ontario resident a few years ago who failed to cash in a ticket worth $14 million. The biggest unclaimed lottery prize in Manitoba’s history wasn’t chump change, either — $1 million in 2012.

“It’s a lot of money. We want people to claim it whenever they can,” said WCLC spokesman Kevin van Egdom. “Because people don’t have to register their names with us, we don’t know until they come to us that they’ve won. We can’t go to their house and tell them. We need them to present a ticket to us.”

In an effort to help people determine whether they’ve got a winner, last month WCLC added a ticket scanner to their app. By simply scanning the ticket’s bar code, lottery fans can check their numbers anywhere and save minutes per week by not cross-referencing them in the paper, online or venturing out to their nearest retailer.

Since its introduction last month, more than 50,000 people have used the ticket-scanning app across the Prairies and territories.

Gamblers can claim smaller prizes at convenience stores and other retailers around the province, but you’ve got to go right to WCLC if you’ll be collecting one of those giant Happy Gilmore-sized cheques.

“Gas stations can’t pay those prizes,” he said.

There were approximately $6 billion worth of lottery tickets sold during WCLC’s last fiscal year, which ended March 31, 2015.

That’s down slightly from the all-time high of about $6.5 billion the year before. About 20 per cent, or $1.2 billion, were sold in the Prairies and territories and about four per cent, or $240 million, were sold in Manitoba.

— with files by Alexandra De Pape

geoff.kirbyson@freepress.mb.ca